"You sent a poor oldy to the other side," The voice echoed behind him, and Oran immediately turned, firing a shot.
Once more it met with nothing burrowing through a tree.
Rapidly turning to the side, he watched stupefied as the young man flashed between the various trees.
His speed was so fast that Oran couldn’t even lock onto him to shoot, and he ended up just having to turn his neck following the wind gust.
"What the hell!? How’s he so fast!?"
"You’re quite slow," the words whispered right by the side of his ear, and reflexively, Wyatt slapped his hand to the side.
The resultant sound was a louder slap as a palm clashed with the back of his hand.
A sudden tug and Wyatt was sent flying forward, a knee rapidly magnifying before his gaze.
It connected sharply, the sound of bones creaking ringing out.
Wyatt was forced to take steps backwards, his teeth clenching in pain as he hurriedly fired,
Two shots were fired, but once more they missed as Everlearn appeared right from beneath.
He punched right at Wyatt’s shoulder, sending the object flying out of his hands.
Everlearn jumped into the air, and Wyatt turned to find a knee appearing right before his face.
Two teeth flew out, his face rippling like a water-filled balloon before he was flung like a rag doll, crashing hard against a tree nearby.
Everlearn gently landed back on both feet, his eyes turning to the weapon on the ground.
He picked it up in his hands, but in the next instant, his face changed, and he hurriedly threw the weapon away.
A powerful explosion echoed out a few meters away, the smoke drowning out Everlearn.
Turbid coughing rang out of Everlearn’s lips as he lurked out of the smoke, waving all over.
"Damn self-IDs!" he cursed beneath his breath.
The model of pistols they were using was one imbued with a special chip: a self-ID chip.
Once configured, if anyone holds the gun apart from the one whose ID was recorded, then it will explode, with enough force to blow the hands into blood showers.
A simple protocol to avoid enemies using one’s weapon against them, but that was usually deactivated in most piloting tools because allies could also be the ones to use the gun.
They wouldn’t want to have their allies’ hands blown off, so most would leave the feature off.
But who would have guessed this freak of a man had his on?
Thankfully, he had been able to dispose of it before it exploded on him.
He heard a wheezing, and he turned to the tree, finding the man who repeatedly coughed out droplets of blood.
He raised his head and flashed him a sick grin.
"You’re quite strong, kid. I’ll give you that. To think someone like you could already be such a powerful Corer," he said, coughing out another mouthful.
"Come on, you have your spear still, come end me. Don’t tell me you’re a scared little doggy," he said with a taunting smirk, but all Everlearn did was ignore him.
He moved closer to one of the hands on the floor, and he grabbed the pistol.
Thankfully, the self-IDs weren’t activated, so Everlearn took both pistols.
Dropping one of the arms, he carried the other and walked to the pods, pressing the five fingers against the glass pod.
"Welcome, Axl. Permission to fly given," the AI voice rang out, and the hatch door opened.
Ryuk threw the weapons into them, but he didn’t immediately go in.
He moved to the other pod instead and also opened it, before quickly tapping on a few buttons.
"Self-destruction code has been implanted."
"The ship will now self-destruct in 30 seconds," the AI voice said, and Ryuk nodded satisfactorily before entering the other pod.
The engine was started, and the pod began levitating off the ground.
Giving one last look at Wyatt, Everlearn’s face widened into a wicked grin before he drove away from the scene with speed.
"He... he didn’t kill me?" Wyatt thought in shock, looking at Ryuk’s pod fading away, but that was when it occurred to him,
"No, no, no—" he cursed, trying to rise, but he only stood halfway when he watched the remaining pod in the place suddenly blow up with a bang. The source of this content ɪs 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝
The blast didn’t spread; the pod simply fell to the ground, becoming a heap of useless metal.
[You decided to spare him?]
The panel flashed as Everlearn sat behind the flying desk, controlling the pod forward.
The panel made a smirk appear on the corner of his lips.
"I didn’t kill any of them."
"The only one who died was that old man, and it was Wyatt who shot him."
"The other two in the pit are very much alive,"
[Why did you keep them alive?]
[Aren’t they better off dead since their existence still bears a threat: they could report you to the organization?]
[Or are you simply scared of killing humans?]
It probed, and Everlearn shrugged.
"Am I scared of killing humans?"
"Yes, unfortunately, I don’t want needless blood on my hands."
"But while I did keep them alive, with the last pods destroyed and their weapons taken, it’ll be a miracle if they survive the night. So... they’re as good as dead," he said with an uncaring shrug.
The system fell silent for a moment before replying.
"Nah, it’s fine. All jobs get their bad days..."
"Now, let’s get out of here," he muttered to himself, turning to the beeping map on the front console.